1792 to 1898

1792:	Sarah Pierce establishes first institution in America for higher education of women, in Litchfield, CT, Litchfield Female Academy, which remained open until 1833.
1833:	Oberlin College (the first U.S. coed college) opens and soon begins enrolling women.
1836:	Georgia Female College, now Wesleyan College, chartered as first all-women's college. Opens in 1839.
1840:	Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana founded by the Catholic Sisters.
1849:	Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first licensed woman physician.
1852:	Mills College founded in California.
1861:	Vassar College founded.
1870:	Hunter College opens as public women's college in New York City.
1875:	Smith College and Wellesley College open.
1879:	Harvard "Annex" opens for women. President F.A.P. Barnard calls for women to be admitted to Columbia University. Voted down.
1881:	Spelman College, first black women's college founded.
1884:	Columbia creates off-campus program for women.
1888:	Bryn Mawr College opens; Mount Holyoke Seminary becomes Mount Holyoke College.
1889:	Barnard College founded; Columbia program for women closes.

1900 to 1968

1916:	Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman elected to Congress.
1920:	19th Amendment is ratified—Women's suffrage.
1922:	First woman Senator appointed—87-year-old Rebecca Felton of Georgia.
1925:	First woman governor in U.S.—Nellie Tayloe Ross—inaugurated.
1926:	Gertrude Ederle is the first woman to swim the English Channel. She breaks all records. Traditionally coed and historically-black Bennett College reorganizes to become an all-women's college.
1927:	Seven schools organize to form the Seven Sisters to promote private women's colleges.
1932:	Amelia Earhart makes first transcontinental nonstop flight by a woman.
1942:	Women's services established by Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps.
1963:	Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, sparks the contemporary feminist movement.
1964:	Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination on the basis of gender.
1966:	National Organization for Women (NOW) organizes.

1969 to Present

1969:	Yale and Princeton begin to admit women.
1970:	Radcliffe becomes part of Harvard and no longer exists as separate entity; Vassar admits men.
1970s:	Many traditionally all-male colleges begin to admit women (Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams).
1981:	Sandra Day O'Connor is the first woman seated on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1983:	Sally Ride is first American woman to ride into space.
1984:	Geraldine Ferraro, a graduate of Marymount College, is the first woman nominated for vice president by a major party.
1992:	A record-breaking number of women are elected to Congress—24 women are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and six are elected to the U.S. Senate. Among them is Carol Moseley Braun, the first African-American woman to win a seat in the Senate.
1993:	Janet Reno is first woman to hold office of Attorney General of the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sexual harassment in the workplace is illegal.
1996:	Madeleine Albright, a Wellelsey graduate, becomes the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.
2000:	Hillary Rodham Clinton, another Wellesley graduate, becomes the first former First Lady elected to public office when she is elected to the U.S. Senate, representing the State of New York.
2003:	Nancy Pelosi, a California congresswomen and graduate of Trinity College in Washington, D.C., becomes the first woman to serve as Democratic Minority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.